VIERA, Fla. — The Nationals came to terms on 2012 contracts with 15 players who have less than three years' service time but were unable to agree on figures with closer Drew Storen and outfielder Roger Bernadina and thus "renewed" both players' contracts.

The process for signing players who have yet to reach arbitration eligibility is fairly simple. The club makes an offer, generally at or near the major-league minimum ($480,000 this season), and the player then has the right to accept or decline it.

However, if the player declines the initial offer, the club is under no obligation to increase it. The team can simply "renew" the contract, setting the players salary unilaterally.

That's what happened with Storen and Bernadina, who citing their experience and/or performance were seeking higher salaries. The Nationals have previously renewed contracts for Ryan Zimmerman and Tyler Clippard.

No, it doesn't factor into arbitration at all. The players are basically indentured servants until they hit arbitration. They're well paid indentured servants, but still completely under the thumb of the team. So, they can ask for all they want, but they're going to get the minimum. They can either sign the contract or hold out, which doesn't happen these days.Storen's payday was his signing bonus. His next one will be when he hits his first arbitration year and gets a big pay raise for one year or signs a multi-year deal, in which case it's a really big payday.

@Anonymous 2:43 PM: And every other owner in baseball. Do you think any owner is going to offer more than they have to? Bernadina hasn't proven anything in the Major Leagues and Storen signed a lucrative deal when he was drafted.I'm pretty sure this is all semantics anyway. The team gave the player his offer (15 of whom said, "Okay, thanks!"), Storen and Bernadina said, "Can I have some more?" The team said, "Nope." And they said, "Okay, thanks!"Can't hurt to ask for more.

Agree, no politics. We get heated enough w/ just baseball.I can see Storen asking for more, he was great. But how does Bernadina justify more?Also, Mark's story doesn't say what the Nats offered either player. You are assuming they offered the minimum. From my previous analysis, it's not uncommon for teams to pay strong performers 5-7% more than the minimum. I would be surprised if they only offered Storen the minimum. My guess is $515k.If Storen has another excellent year, they might extend him to buy out some arbitration years and give him some guaranteed money. (arbitration deals generally aren't guaranteed).

Look at it this way, Storen signed for a $1.6 million bonus and additionally will have earned over $1 million is salary after this year. That means by age 24 he will have earned more money than many people will in their whole lives. I don't begrudge him, but he's doing all right.

President Obama only gets $ 400,000 and look at the great job he's done.Which brings to mind the story of when Babe Ruth was holding out for a raise, and Yankee ownership pointed out that the raise he wanted would have him making more than the President did. Ruth's retort was "Well, I had a better year." Ruth got his raise.

Feel Wood said:Which brings to mind the story of when Babe Ruth was holding out for a raise, and Yankee ownership pointed out that the raise he wanted would have him making more than the President did. Ruth's retort was "Well, I had a better year." Ruth got his raise.Can't resist a political comment from Canada, though it is offered much more in an interesting-how-the-world-has-changed way than in any partisan spirit. Interesting that Ruth offered his rejoinder to the Yankees just as American labor relations were about to be fundamentally transformed by the Great Depression and World War II. Now, in an increasingly low-wage service economy, we see one of the remaining beneficiaries of those transformed labor relations, union member and likely reserve outfielder Roger Bernadina, suggesting that he should be paid that much more above the salary of the individual holding down arguably the world’s most important job than that to which he is already entitled. It ain’t 1930 any longer.

Storen is Super Two, so he goes to arbitration next year. That should produce a significant raise.No kidding.The presumably insignificant $66,000 he just got is probably more than most readers here make in a year. Not that I'm begrudging them, I'm just saying.

If paying one of these guys more than the minimum doesn't get you anything more than a seat at the arbitration table in a couple of years, why on earth should you bother? (My recollection is that when they "renewed" Z'man, they gave him a few dollars more than they were required to give but less than he asked for. Am I right about that? Maybe — if my recollection is correct — they did buy some good will in that case.)

Good will counts. They could thrwo a guy like Storen a bone. Sure he made some big bucks on his signings bonus in 2010 but these guys can blow an arm out at any time and a $25K bump for a guy is a tip of the cap in the baseball world that has value. Gotta scrape every coin they can I guess.